Young Authors Contest
Young Authors
Thank you for your interest in the Young Authors 2012 writing competition. The submission period is now closed. Below you can find information on the Young Authors 2012 Awards Ceremony to be held on Saturday, April 7 at Columbia College Chicago.
The Young Authors Finalists have been chosen for 2012. Congratulations to those who were selected as an Honorable Mention or a Placer in this year's competition! If you are listed in the top three, please note that your placement was announced at the Awards Ceremony on Saturday, April 7, 2012, and is now listed below. If you were unable to attend, your certificate will be mailed to you.
The Honorable Mentions for Fiction are:
Nicholas Brasse
Samantha Alliston
Taylor Herrera
Anne Malin Ringwalt
Caroline Shea
Julia Graston
Vanity Robinson
Robert Gaines
Caitlin Wolper
Kelly Clare
Emily Cutler
The First, Second, and Third place winners for Fiction are:
Nancy Ko - 1st Place
Emily Nason - 2nd Place
Anthony J. Otten - 3rd Place
The Honorable Mentions for Creative Non-Fiction are:
Madeleine Wattenbarger
Sophia Wiltrout
Emily Nason
Patrick McCabe
Jasmine Jones
Bernice Chan
Abhiya Ahmed
The First, Second, and Third place winners for Creative Non-Fiction are:
Da'Shawn Mosley - Tied for 1st Place
Lisa Savagian - Tied for 1st Place
Sophia Wiltrout - 2nd Place
Hannah Lorenz - 3rd Place
The Honorable Mentions for Playwriting are:
Emily Swanson
Danealle Khaimskiy
Theodora Z. Salazar
The First, Second, and Third place winners for Playwriting are:
Jake Gogats - 1st Place
Victor Marmolejo - 2nd Place
Makaela Stephens - 3rd Place
Congratulations again to all of our finalists! Don't forget to RSVP by Friday, March 30, 2012 for the Awards Ceremony. All participants are welcome to attend the ceremony, whether they are finalists or not. We hope to see you there.
A Letter to Students
Dear Students,
This year's Young Authors Awards Celebration 2012 will be held on Saturday, April 7, 2012. You may bring parents, teachers, and friends to the Awards Ceremony. If you can come, RSVP to the Columbia College Fiction Writing Department at 312-369-7611 no later than Friday, March 30, 2012. Tell the receptionist how many guests you will bring, if you or your guests will participate in a writing workshop, and if you will read in the Open Mic. If you plan on reading in the Open Mic, select two pages from your contest entry OR two pages of other work to read — double-spaced, one-inch margins, please.
About 10 finalists will be named in each of three categories: Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, and Playwriting. Finalists receive a certificate and a copy of Hair Trigger, the award-winning anthology of writing by students in the Columbia College Chicago Fiction Writing Department. First-, Second-, and Third-Place Winners will be named in each category and will win cash prizes of $200, $100, and $50 respectively.
If you are a contest finalist, you will be notified no later than Friday, March 23. This year, when we call or email the contest winners, you will be told that you are a “Placer” (1st, 2nd, or 3rd place) or an “Honorable Mention” (up to ten) in each of the three categories. If you do not receive a call by Friday, March 23, then your story did not make the final cut (and, if that is the case, and as any writer knows, you should send it to another contest or take a look at it, again, for places to rewrite — heighten, cut, expand).
Of course, even if your story is not chosen by our panel of judges, you can still participate in all of the events on April 7. You can start a new story or work on an existing one in a Writing Workshop, ask questions of published writers at our Publishing Panel, or read in the Open Mic. If you are interested in these events, you should reserve your space as soon as possible.
All finalists will be announced in press releases, which will be sent to high school principals and hometown newspapers (with photos where available).
All events begin at 1:00 PM, April 7, 2012, at Columbia College Chicago's Stage 2, 618 S. Michigan Avenue.
Schedule of Events
12:00-1:00 PM Registration/Sign-Up for Writing Workshops and Open Mic reading
1:00-2:30 PM Story Workshop Writing Classes
2:30-3:00 PM Refreshments
3:00-3:30 PM Publishing Panel
3:30-3:45 PM Awards Ceremony
3:45-4:00 PM Readings by First-Place Award Winners in each category
4:00-5:30 PM Open Mic reading for any high school student entrants (arrive early to sign up—first-come, first-served) LIMIT: TWO DOUBLE-SPACED TYPEWRITTEN PAGES
All the day's events are free.
We hope you plan on attending — whether or not you are a finalist. We understand that many young authors write in isolation. In some school districts, creative writing has been taken out of the curriculum. As writers ourselves, we know how important it is to share our work with peers, to make contacts with published writers, and to interact with other professionals.
Bring two pages to read in the Open Mic, ask questions of published writers during the Publishing Panel, begin a new story or work on an existing one in the Writing Workshop, and benefit from the challenge and inspiration that comes from hearing the work of other writers.
Story Workshop directors will teach this year's workshops. Story Workshop semicircles have produced a National Book Award winner, a winner of Taiwan's Million Yuan Literary Prize for the best novel in the Chinese-speaking world, and a Studs Terkel Award winner, in addition to legions of other published and award-winning writers. Come prepared to participate in a workshop, and see if you can talk your guests into participating, too. In past years, students, parents, and teachers have written together in an experience that is both serious and fun.
Come ready to read about two pages from your contest entry or new material on a first-come, first-served basis. The reading is not censored and our audience is always friendly.
Ask a question at the Publishing Panel. Want to ask a published writer how they did it? Here's your chance.
Authors Nami Mun, Geoff Hyatt, Patrick Somerville, and Cathy Singer will be at the Publishing Panel talking about the art and business of writing. Check out their bios, and come with questions to find out how they got published!
Nami Mun grew up in Seoul, South Korea and Bronx, New York. For her first book, Miles from Nowhere, she received a Whiting Award and a Pushcart Prize, and was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for New Writers and the Asian American Literary Award. Previously, Nami has worked as an Avon Lady, a photojournalist, a waitress, an activities coordinator for a nursing home, and a criminal defense investigator. After earning a GED, she went on to get a BA in English from UC Berkeley and an MFA from University of Michigan, where she garnered the Hopwood Award for fiction and the Farrar Prize for playwriting. Her stories have been published in numerous magazines, including Granta, Tin House, The Iowa Review, and The Pushcart Prize Anthology.
Geoff Hyatt is the author of the novel Birch Hills at World's End (Vagabondage Press). His stories have appeared in the anthologies Night Terrors and Rock & Roll is Dead: Dark Tales Inspired by Music, as well in the journals Criminal Class Review, Midwestern Gothic, Knee-Jerk Magazine, and elsewhere. A former staff writer for a media production company, he received his MFA in Fiction Writing from Columbia College Chicago in 2009.
Patrick Somerville is the author of the story collections Trouble and The Universe in Miniature in Miniature, and the novel The Cradle. His fourth book, This Bright River, will be out in June. He lives with his wife and son in Chicago, where he teaches creative writing at Northwestern University.
Cathy Singer is currently an Emmy Award-winning producer at Dateline NBC, where she’s worked since 1994. In addition to pitching, booking, and shooting stories, Cathy writes scripts and works creatively with editors. Before Dateline NBC, Cathy worked as an Associate Producer at 60 Minutes and as a Researcher at CBS Evening News with Dan Rather. Cathy's freelance articles have appeared in The New York Times Sunday "Long Island Weekly" section (including a bi-weekly "On the Job With" feature column), Cosmopolitan, New York Woman, Milwaukee Journal Sunday magazine, and Long Island Monthly.
Our campus is in the South Loop, at the south end of the city's major downtown region, near the lakefront, Grant Park, and Buckingham Fountain. We are within walking distance of most CTA elevated/subway rail lines, shopping, restaurants, theaters, and hotels, about a mile from Chicago's main Metra and Union rail stations. The city provides public transportation on the CTA Blue Line Elevated/Subway train from O'Hare Airport and on the CTA Orange Line Elevated/Subway train from Midway Airport to downtown Chicago. If you are driving, please be prepared to pay for parking in Chicago's South Loop. Prices may range from $15 to $25.
Also, check our Web site — www.colum.edu/fiction — for additional information on the Columbia College Fiction Writing Department.
We Hope To See You At The Awards Ceremony!
